Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series — Verizon 200 at the Brickyard
Indianapolis Motor Speedway | Saturday, August 15, 2021
Ford drivers in the top-15 of the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, met with members of the media following practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday afternoon.
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Unibet Ford Mustang — YOU WON HERE LAST YEAR, BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT TRACK THIS YEAR. TALK ABOUT THAT DIFFERENCE. “The difference in track? It is definitely not the same Indianapolis. This place is built off the history of the oval. For me growing up as a kid, this is where I wanted to race. To come here and race on the road course is a little bit degrading I guess you could say. For us, it is another race that you go out and do the best you can. I don’t own the racetrack, so I don’t make those decisions. We just go race as hard as we can and see where it falls.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE SHARING THE WEEKEND WITH INDYCAR? “I think we should rotate. I think we should go oval, road course, oval, road course. I think it is fine.”
YOU SAID YOU GREW UP WANTING TO RACE HERE. WHAT MAKES INDY FANS SO GREAT AND HAVING A DOUBLE DOSE OF THEM THIS WEEKEND? “Indy fans are race fans. They are the heart of race fans. I think for me, you understand the knowledge and the fans in Indianapolis understand the history of motorsports in general. As you go across the country, Indy is a little different because the fans are so knowledgeable here and so supportive of racing in general.”
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT HERE ON SUNDAY? WILL IT BE MORE DRAMATIC? “I am probably the wrong person to ask. I think that the road course is different. I think you are going to have road course stuff happen. It is a relatively short road course with a lot of really slow parking lot corners. You just have to kind of manage those types of corners differently than you did at a place like Watkins Glen. It will definitely be different. Not saying that I like it, but it is different.”
YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO THROW UP WHEN YOU CAME THROUGH THE TUNNEL. DID YOU THROW UP YESTERDAY OR WERE YOU OKAY? “I wanted to throw up. It is like I told Dustin yesterday. I have lived through the years of taking the Southern 500 and taking a race away from Darlington, taking a crown jewel race away because you thought it wasn’t what you needed to be doing. That part of me is never going to go away.”
DO YOU LIKE HAVING ALL THE ROAD COURSES OR HAVE WE REACHED A LIMIT? “I think we should take different ovals. I think every road course we have added took one of our better tracks away for each race.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang — THIS INDYCAR AND NASCAR DOUBLE-HEADER, WHAT DO YOU THINK? “I think about it more for the fans than I do for me. It is something new and exciting and we are seeing a lot of different new ideas that are fun to work through and be a part of. I think it is good. It is good to break it up a little bit.”
DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU WANT TO SEE IT ON A REGULAR BASIS, RACING THE ROAD COURSE HERE? “I think this could maybe be its own tradition. It seems like whenever there is a good idea, everyone in the sport tries to copy it until they ruin it. No, just let one track have it. Let them enjoy it. Whether it was the road course at Charlotte or whatever it might be. We can’t let one person have a good idea, we all have to copy it.”
IS THIS THE RIGHT TRACK FOR THIS DOUBLE-HEADER? “Yeah, with Roger (Penske), if there is a place to do this, it makes sense to be here.”
IS IT GOOD HAVING THE ROAD COURSES BACK TO BACK? “A little bit. When you do it more you just get better at it. I have a long ways to go to get where I want to be at it but having weeks of consistency with it helps you as a driver to get in a rhythm. I am a little concerned about having so many road courses on the schedule but if they are going to be on the schedule, making them so close together I guess makes sense.”
WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THIS ROAD COURSE NOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN OUT THERE? “It is different. It has its own flavor to it. All road courses have their own flavor but this one has the feel of an F1 track where some of them are just road courses. This one is really well done from that perspective and clean and nice.”
ANYTHING SURPRISE YOU ABOUT IT? “Not really, no.”
ROGER SAY ANYTHING TO YOU ABOUT WHAT THIS WEEKEND MEANS TO HIM? “I think it is one of those things that he doesn’t have to say. When you come to Indy, everyone knows there is a little bit more emphasis.”
DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE MORE COMBOS? “Hard to say. I don’t have any indications that there would be any more but I also have some reality that if this does go over real well that other tracks will try to copy it.”
HAVE YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO INTERACT WITH ANY OF THE INDYCAR DRIVERS? “A few. I have some IndyCar teammates. I went and saw Michael Andretti and spent some time with him and Mario and saw some of his drivers. I am having fun.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang — WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE ROAD COURSE? A LOT OF GUYS SEEM UPSET TO NOT BE ON THE OVAL THIS WEEKEND: “It is what it is. I am excited to be here no matter what, whether it is the oval or the road course. The road course is neat. Pretty tough to get the hang of. A lot of long straightaways and really heavy braking corners and it is really easy to lock your tires up, especially into 12 there. It is a weird transition. It is cool to be at Indy no matter what it is. There will be a lot of challenges tomorrow for the race, trying to take care of your tires and your car and stuff. It was a fun day today getting your bearings on everything. It is a different road course. It is flat. There is no elevation, not like the Glen or Sonoma where you have some dips. This is just flat. It is pretty neat though. Different.”
DO YOU LIKE RACING WITH INDY CAR? WOULD YOU LIKE MORE DOUBLE-HEADER WEEKENDS? “Yeah. I love watching no matter what kind of racing it is. Obviously with the Penske IndyCar guys, it is nice to go see them on their race weekends and kind of understand what they go through. I was in McLaughlin’s pit for qualifying yesterday and that was cool to see how the process goes there a little bit. I think I am going to watch the race in one of their pits today to see what that world is like. It is the same but they do some things differently than us. Some of the fans I have talked to as well, they enjoy having the crossover. I think it is good for motorsports in general.”
THERE WAS A PHOTO OF YOU TALKING TO ROMAIN GROSJEAN: “Yeah, I met him. That was cool. He was a super nice guy. A friend of a friend kind of introduced me to him and he was a super great guy. I met him a couple of times and got to talk to him to see how he likes IndyCar and how it compares. It was pretty funny. I asked him how he liked IndyCar and he said he loves it but that there is a lot more fan access than F1. I was like, “Yeah, it is.” I have been to a F1 race and there is nobody outside of the team in the garage. Yeah, that was cool to meet him. It is awesome to talk about stuff because he comes from a cool world.”
DID YOU GET TO MEET ANY OTHER NON PENSKE INDYCAR DRIVERS? “I met a lot of them at Newgarden’s charity event. I got to talk to them a little bit there. I didn’t want to bother anybody yesterday before qualifying. I saw Jimmie (Johnson) and it was good to see him again. I talked to a lot of those guys at the ping pong tournament. They are all good guys. They are just racers. A little different form of racing but at the end of the day they are all racers.”
THE LACK OF ELEVATION CHANGE, DOES IT SUIT THE CUP CARS BETTER DO YOU THINK? “I don’t know if it suits them better but it is different. There is nothing to lean on. There is no banking to lean on, nothing like that. At Watkins Glen, turn 2 up the hill you are leaning in the banking and have more grip. Here there is no banking to lean on. I don’t know if it suits them better, it is just a different feel. Your car doesn’t dig into the race track. It is easy to slide it because there is nothing holding it there.”
IS THERE ANY BIG DIFFERENCE IN HAVING BACK-TO-BACK ROAD COURSE RACES COMPARED TO HAVING THEM SPREAD OUT? “I think you can kind of get into a rhythm a little bit. I like the back-to-back stuff. My brake foot doesn’t hurt from last week, so that is good. I am ready to go. I think it is just repetition stuff and you can get in a groove. It is nice to do the same thing on back-to-back weekends. I don’t know if I would want to do it a month straight but two weekends in a row isn’t a bad thing.”
HARVICK WAS SAYING THAT HE WANTS THEM TO LOOK AT ROTATING THE OVAL AND ROAD COURSE. KYLE BUSCH IS NOT A HUGE FAN OF THE ROAD COURSE. HOW DO YOU FEEL? DO YOU HOPE THE OVAL COMES BACK? “I wouldn’t mind swapping back and forth. It would switch it up every year. I am sure there are some guys that would want to switch it up and some that just want the oval. I wouldn’t mind next year coming back to the oval and then the year after that the road course. Change it up a little bit.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang — HOW DOES HAVING THAT WIN UNDER YOUR BELT CHANGE YOU COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “It changes everything because now we are showing up to race tracks wanting to win versus having to win. There is a big difference in that. There is a lot of pressure when you show up to races and feel like your only shot is to have to win. We were that way for the last several months. To be able to pull off a clutch win like we did at New Hampshire and to get that victory and now have the rest of the regular season going to race tracks with just the desire and want to win is a big change. It is nice. It makes it more fun to go to the track.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS TRACK? DO YOU ENJOY BACK-TO-BACK ROAD RACES? “I am not a huge fan of having a ton of road course races. I enjoy short track racing and speedway racing and 1.5-mile racing and all that stuff. Road racing is something that I have had to get better at. I think that is why I haven’t really liked it or loved it because I am super competitive and I want to compete at things that I am good at. So I have had to work really hard at getting better at road racing so that I can compete.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang — YOU CAME IN EARLY YESTERDAY TO WATCH INDYCAR PRACTICE RIGHT? “I did. I had a couple things to do before hand as well and wanted to watch the Xfinity practice. I have never seen IndyCar go around the racetrack besides Jospeh Newgarden at the Roval. I wanted to see that. They build our cars next to each other for the most part and I have never really seen them go which is a little embarrassing. I have never had the opportunity to either. I just wanted to go and watch a little bit and see what is going on. It is Rogers’s racetrack too so being around is cool and seeing what he has done is neat.”
DID YOU GET TO WANDER THROUGH THE PADDOCK? “Yeah, it is awesome. You can drive your golf cart right in there. It is incredible. You can drive around anywhere you want to go. It is a near setup. Their garage setup is so different. I guess you call it a paddock, but for us NASCAR people it is the garage. It is really nice and clean and the way everything is setup looks beautiful. Especially the Penske stuff. We all know how that is going to look anyway. It is pretty cool.”
HOW EMOTIONAL DID YOU GET TO SEE HELIO CASTRONEVES WIN NUMBER FOUR? “I was pretty excited about it. I honestly teared up a little watching it in my bus before the 600. I was so excited for him. You just never know where God leads you sometimes. Who would have thought that would happen? Obviously Helio and I have been able to build somewhat of a relationship as teammates at Penske. He is the most likable person you have probably ever met. I don’t think anyone dislikes Helio. I don’t think you can. That was shown when you saw everybody happy for him. There are not many times somebody wins and other competitors are happy to see you win. That is just unheard of. There are not many people that I would be happy to see win that I am competing against in a race. To see the line of competitors that were happy to see him win was really cool. I think everybvody was rooting for him. He was the crowd favorite. He has been around forever and is a legend.”
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SURPRISED BY SOMEONE CONGRATULATING YOU AFTER A WIN THAT YOU DIDN’T EXPECT TO? “Cole Pern after we won the championship was very surprising, yeah. It was pretty cool. On the stage that night, I remember it.”
WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE TOMORROW? “I think we will probably watch the Xfinity race to get an idea. I think the track is pretty racey when you think of areas to pass. There are plenty of areas to make mistakes and we saw that in practice with guys locking tires up in corners. There are areas where you have to hustle the heck out of it and areas you have to be very smooth. It is a unique place for that reason. There are some areas you have to tip-toe and some you have to man up and get in there. It is fun to get around and tricky. It is really tricky that you are braking with lateral in the car. Our cars are very top heavy so when you have any kind of lateral and you brake, your inside tires don’t have enough weight on them to keep them from locking up. That is why you see so many lock-ups.”
WOULD YOU RATHER BE ON THE ROAD COURSE OR OVAL? “I just want to race at Indy. I don’t care. I do think the road course will put on a better race for everybody. We talked for years about the oval race and how we wanted it to be better. We tried plenty of things to try to make it better and then we watched that Xfinity race and all you had to do was watch that one time to say, ‘Let’s give that a shot.”
IS IT SURREAL TO KNOW THAT ROGER OWNS THIS PLACE? “It is probably surreal for him. When I was sitting up there on top of the Pagoda yesterday with him watching IndyCar practice, of course it goes through your mind. Can you imagine owning this place and being able to say, ‘All of this is mine.’ It is crazy to think that. He has done great things with it already. You look at the facilities. It is the prettiest racetrack we go to. I was laughing because someone went through the grass in Xfinity practice and I thought, ‘He is going to be angry.’ They messed up his lines. Someone is going to have to go out and mow the grass tonight.”
WHAT SURPRISED YOU ABOUT THE COURSE? “The way our simulation is these days there is nothing that surprises anymore. Our braking markers were pretty similar and the way you drive it, I couldn’t believe it because we all rolled out there together and I felt like I had a general idea of where I was going but I have never made a lap around this place. We didn’t even check up. We just go to where we think it is right and just hammer down. Nobody was lost out there. You would think when you go to a road course for the first time you would be thinking about where do you brake and what do you do. Everyone was just hammer down. Maybe the third lap was probably the best one but everyone went hammer down pretty quick.”
WHEN YOU STARTED IN RACING IT WASN’T THAT WAY: ”Yeah, we didn’t have that to this extent. We would go to a new racetrack and in this case it would be like the only guys that have experience here are Bricoe and Cindric and AJ (Allmendinger). They were obviously fast to fire off and have an idea of where they are going a little better than us but we weren’t that far off. We closed the gap pretty quickly for starting at a deficit behind them.”
DO YOU LIKE HAVING BACK-TO-BACK ROAD COURSES? “It doesn’t matter. I am sure it kind of matters for race fans. You don’t want to give them too much of one thing. I think adjusting from different tracks but two weeks of the same thing isn’t a bad thing. If you did four straight weeks of road courses you would probably get complaints. The races have been entertaining though. These road course races are interesting from a strategy perspective and watching these things bounce around all over the place. Our cars drive like crap through this place. It is funny. You talk to these IndyCar guys and you hear where they are braking and what they are doing and we aren’t even close. It is just a different game. Our racing is different for that reason. Better or worse, I will let you decide, but I think that is good. You have something for everybody”
